DeAnda, S. 1 , Deák, G. 1 , Poulin-Dubois, D. 2 , Zesiger, P. 3 & Friend, M. 1
1 SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program In Language and Communicative Disorders
2 Concordia University
3 University of Geneva
Mounting evidence indicates positive relations exist between language input (quantity and quality), socioeconomic status (SES), and vocabulary acquisition in young children. Since these studies focus on lexical production rather than comprehension, little is known about the effects of input and SES at the earliest stages of language acquisition. Further, studies that do evaluate lexical comprehension use parent report, such as the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Inventory: Words and Gestures (MCDI, Fenson et al., 1993). Although useful for assessing early language, use of the MCDI across SES has been questioned, with some studies finding a tendency of lower SES parents to over-report early comprehension (Feldman et al., 2000; Fenson et al., 1993; Reznick, 1990). Consequently, gaps exist in our understanding of the effects of SES and maternal input in early life. This study investigates the relationship between hours of maternal talk, SES, and vocabulary comprehension in 67 English-dominant children between the ages 15;15 and 18;5 (M = 16;21). Lexical comprehension was assessed using a touch-screen behavioral test: the Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT, Friend & Keplinger, 2003; Friend & Keplinger, 2008; Friend, Schmidt, & Simpson, 2012), and the MCDI. Results reveal main effects, but no interaction, of SES and maternal talk on the CCT: higher SES and hours of maternal talk predicted higher comprehension scores, consistent with research using language samples. Conversely, MCDI comprehension scores revealed an interaction of SES and maternal talk: lower SES parents? estimates did not reflect differences in vocabulary as a function of maternal talk, whereas among higher SES parents, more hours of maternal talk predicted higher vocabulary comprehension. Thus, CCT results suggest that both SES and maternal talk have effects on early comprehension before the onset of word combinations in production. Further, the interaction on the MCDI suggests SES influences parent reports of early comprehension, consistent with previous literature.